The Control of Nature

We already know that as a species we have an overinflated belief in our own abilities. The heroes of these incredible battles with the overwhelming forces of nature - water, lava and mountain building (in Los Angeles!) seem to agree that not even they can win.

As with all of his books, easy, entertaining, insightful well written. Very interesting

very good

Described on my copy as “the doyen of environmental writers,” John McPhee should not be confused with the current crop of British nature writers: McPhee does not go to Iceland, the lower Mississippi or Los Angeles to find out more about himself; he does not quote poetry; he does not flaunt his abilities as a naturalist. McPhee’s interest here is environmental processes and natural forces: volcanic eruptions; hydrology and sedimentation; microclimates and geology. Balanced against this is McPhee’s interest in the human, visible in his ability to pick out stories that turn vulcanology into human drama, debris flows into the stuff of human tragedy. This is writing of a very high quality, a book that demonstrates human imagination and ingenuity, as well as no small amount of folly and misplaced optimism, in our attempts to control nature.

This is a great book by a great American writer. It consists of three long essays, and each deals with the difficulties of controlling natural events in places where control is required if a community and an economy are to be sustained. The three places in question are New Orleans, where the threat is posed by the Mississippi River; the Icelandic fishing port of Heimaey, where the threat is posed by lava; and the L. A. suburbs in the foothills of the San Gabriel mountains, where the threat is posed by debris flows. In each of these cases, McPhee provides the necessary historical, geographical, and geological contexts for our understanding of (a) the nature of the danger, and (b) how a human community arose in such a dangerous place. He's also alive to the ways in which human interventions to meet these dangers cause further danger, and one leaves the book feeling that nature is likely to "win" these battles in the long run. Not that McPhee talks about "Nature": he's focused on specific places at specific times, and this is inspired journalism, not windy metaphysics. McPhee makes clear, though, that there are differences between communities and economies that developed over time to a point where not maintaining them isn't an option and communities that are more recent and perhaps represent bad choices driven by economic interests. Thus, the threatened Heimaey is the best fishing harbor in Iceland and really can't easily be given up, while the threatened L. A. suburbs should never have been developed in the first place and are maintained for the very rich at huge economic costs. Judgements such as these McPhee leaves to the reader to make -- as narrator, he tends to keep his opinions implicit. Formally, the essays are quite distinct, and they represent different ways of combining history, geography, economics, geology, hydrology, personal anecdote, and narrative. Reviewers(in the USA) who complain of lack of focus just aren't reading carefully enough. They're not appreciating all that McPhee is trying to bring together in these essays and how ingeniously he tries to find solutions to the problem of organizing such diverse material. It also should be said that the quality of the writing is very high -- it encompasses different registers, depending on what he's talking about, and he's not above indulging in some some fine effects that we might think belong to "creative" writing rather than journalism. He never resorts to cliche or to formula, either in his sentences or in the overall construction of the essays, and what stays in the reader's mind is the sense of the specificity of place and problem. The book is about an important topic, and it's an impressive achievement. NOTE: The fact that Katrina blasted New Orleans does not in the least invalidate the threat that McPhee discusses -- i. e. that left to its own devices, the Mississippi will find a new path to the Gulf of Mexico, leaving N.O., in McPhee's words, "low and dry" and cut off from much needed fresh water.

John McPhee can make a book about shoelaces interesting. In this case he writes about Icelandic volcanoes, the control of the Mississippi, and the floods and fires of Los Angeles. I really should not have to say more. Buy the book and come away with important knowledge conveyed entertainingly. How McPhee manages to be at once so entertaining and so capable of making facts interesting is a brilliant achievement.

A brilliant description of major engineering like the Mississippi control system.

In The Control of Nature published in 1989 (paperback) by John McPhee combines three essays from the New Yorker. Each of the three topics deals with the relationship of man to earth processes. Geologically speaking the processes include in the First Topic fluvial geomorphology and delta mechanics of the Mississippi River. In the Second Topic volcanism and the formation of igneous rocks on an island, Heimaey - off the south coast of Iceland, dominate the discussion. There is also a small section on Hawaii. In the Third Topic the focus is on the slope processes (mass wasting - debris flows) on the rising and eroding San Gabriel Mountains, bounding Los Angeles on the north. Also, in varying degrees, the essays deal with a spectrum of difficulty or success which man has had in confronting Nature. McPhee is an honest reporter, he finds facts, often reporting directly the words of people he has interviewed. He focuses on important crucial information. This work is valuable to both layman and expert. It is not just that he one of the best expository writers to confront geoscience, but that he had the intellect to recognize what is both important and interesting. In each circumstance he exposes the human history context. Along the Mississippi this history goes back at least as far as the War of 1812, and the transition from natural levees to the man-created levees which now dominate and shape the problems with living beside the third largest river system in the world. McPhee also develops the history of the Corp of Engineers with its influential and costly history to present day. Heimaey history, pronounced "hay may" is short, recent history. Beginning in February, 1973, a volcanic eruption in the northern Atlantic begins and threatens the lively hood of a prosperous fishing community. What does man do? This is, perhaps, an economic success case of Man's control of nature. In California the canyons and "foot-of-the-mountain" area of the southern San Gabriel Mountains are subject to a spectacular phenomena called debris flows. Clay, mud, sand, and enormous boulders are carried down slope through canyons in an ugly slurry-like form called debris flows destroying homes and buildings. Today at great expense to the taxpayer (state and national) man runs a complicated, high-cost, high-maintenance program to protect man from this natural geologic process. McPhee's delineation of the history of how we go to this present state of affairs reminds me of the story of the frog in the pot which is brought very slowly to a boil. Would we do it the same way if we had understood the result or geomorphic process. In my paperback version of The Control of Nature there is only one figure on page 226, and a very schematic figure at that. McPhee flouts the dictum that a "picture is worth a thousand words." He is able to write in paragraphs that are truly graphic, taking three-dimensions and making the visual, verbal. The rest of us require diagrams and maps. As I was reading about the conurbation of the Atchafalaya, the Red River, the Mississippi River, the Old River, the old River Control Structure, and the Old River Control Auxiliary, I eventually had to break down, go out on the INTERNET and find some maps. It isn't just that these all have unique locations, but also that the locations evolve and have a history. For some things words alone will not suffice. That is this reviewers opinion. Reviewer Opinion: This is a very important book from a technical geoscience point of view because it successfully integrates human history and geologic process. From a layman point of view it underlines the importance of geologic process to man. In my opinion the Core of Engineers is often given a bad rap for merely doing what we have asked them to do. Our representatives (Congress) not the Corps set the objectives. I recommend this book. The Control of Nature deserves to be read and re-read and will not go out of date.

Great book, love the writers style. Best section (opinion) is on the mountains around LA, which turn into rock slides during the rain. Harrowing stories of the people and houses buried in these events, also how the flood control dams work, the local geology and the effort required to keep it all working. Well researched, a quick read that is hard to put down.

A very enlightening book - one that too few people probably know the depth of. Living in Burbank CA I am VERY close to the areas spoken of in the San Gabriel mountains section; the slippage and floods that begin during storms and continue long after. The Iceland section is extremely interesting - I knew nothing about that one. The Atchafalaya of course is a well known problematic situation and McPhee again provides interesting commentary.